Avalanches in skiing areas may be hazardous—they can injure those skiing and those around an avalanche site. Accordingly, it has been desirable to remove snow in a controlled way and/or at a predetermined time to avoid such injuries to avoid undesirable avalanches.
It has long been known that vibration can destabilize snow in avalanche-prone regions. Helicopters, snowmobilers, trekkers and skiers can start such an avalanche (either deliberately as planned or accidentally) and some of these methods have been used in some ways for avalanche control in the past. Conventionally, unstable (avalanche-prone) areas have also been cleared with a concussive wave. Artillery shells and dynamite have been the main tools for creating a convulsive wave in commercial ski areas, but recently a system using fuel-air mixture with propane from a fixed targeted unit has been proposed to clear an area of snow which might avalanche.
Some known approaches to controlling avalanches are costly or dangerous and others are complicated in that they involve components which are prone to fail or unreliable. Some of the components are difficult to maintain in the weather conditions of an avalanche area, namely cold and wet during the winter, with warmer temperatures at other times of the year. Other systems rely on human actions and therefore put humans in the region of an intended avalanche, which can be dangerous.
The use of some materials in creating an avalanche have the undesirable effect of releasing harmful chemicals in the area. Those chemicals include silver compounds and benzene. Such materials are carried by the snow into the water supply of the area as the snow melts and create health concerns in the areas and downstream from them. Such chemicals can be harmful to humans, either from drinking water with the chemicals or by eating fish that have been in such water. Accordingly, it is desirable to avoid using chemicals, including tnt, to induce avalanches.
However, these systems have undesirable limitations and aspects. The present invention addresses some of these undesirable limitations and aspects to provide an improved system and method for reducing the possibility of undesirable and untimely avalanches.